Tankopedia
WW2LightLight TankSoviet Union

T-60

In service 1941 - 1944

The emergency light tank built in automobile plants when the Soviet Union needed anything that could move and shoot.

Built byFactory No. 37, GAZ, Factory No. 264

T-60
T-60, Patriot Museum, Kubinka — Alan Wilson, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

Development history

Designed in weeks during the 1941 crisis, the T-60 used automotive components so it could be built at truck factories while tank plants moved east. Its 20 mm gun could not touch German medium armour, and crews called it grim work, but thousands of T-60s screened infantry, scouted, towed and fought through the defence of Moscow and Stalingrad. Its chassis became the basis of the SU-76, the most numerous Soviet armoured vehicle of the war after the T-34.

Variants

One canonical record, 2 recorded variants.

  1. T-60 model 1941

    1941

    Initial production, 20 mm TNSh, thinner armour

  2. T-60 model 1942

    1942

    Up-armoured front and turret, stamped road wheels

Notable actions

  • Battle of Moscow
  • Battle of Stalingrad
  • Siege of Leningrad